When I ask women where they want to go to for their first overseas trip, I usually get the same dreamy-eyed look, deep sigh and breathy response: Paris. The romantic allure of the French capital has captivated women’s fantasies for centuries. Between the seductive language, the fascinating art, the sumptuous cuisine, the exquisite fashion, […]

Airbnb sent an email an email a few weeks, reminding me of my third anniversary with them. I can still remember the excitement and apprehension when I made my first booking: a non-descript apartment in the East Berlin district of Mitte. It was clean and spartan, with a heater from the Cold War era. […]

There is no doubt that social media plays a huge role in inspiring us to travel. Personally, it doesn’t take much to make me want to go to wherever my social media contacts point me to. It doesn’t help that I’m super impressionable. I go from deciding that I need to go to Turkey […]

Like many people, I have a loooooong To-Go list of places to see and visit. But in the last year of traveling, I’ve come to know other facets of the travel experience that go beyond location and destination. As I read and followed other travelers’ tales of their journeys, I’ve found myself very interested in […]

When you’re planning a fun trip or, thinking about getting sick or injured is the last thing on your mind. Unfortunately, illness and accidents happen. The best way to prevent the situation from going to bad to worse is to have a sensible plan. PRE TRIP Prepare the following: 1. A good medicine kit, to […]

I married a true-blue sci-fi nerd. Glen has had a long-standing love affair with Star Wars, Star Trek, Iron Man, console and PC gaming, and Marvel superheroes that predates our relationship. He’s been a fan since childhood, long before it was cool and hip to be a nerd (I’d insert a certain throwback photo here to […]

38 Things I’ve Learned From Traveling I recently celebrated my 38th birthday, so I thought I’d list down a random sampling of the things I’ve picked up from my travels thus far. Many of these are my personal opinions, musings and insights. Some of them are practical tips. A couple are bits and pieces of […]

Today’s traveler has a wealth of choices when it comes to booking accommodations for a trip. From traditional hotels to Airbnb properties and everything in between, there has been an explosion of options for where to stay during your travels. Some places are a destination and an attraction in itself. With the advent of peer […]

When deciding to travel, we are faced with the choice of whether to go with an organized tour company or do independent travel. Organized tours have been around for a long time in various forms. The modern tour company can be traced back to 1841 when an enterprising British gentleman named Thomas Cook arranged for […]

How do you choose where to go and what to do when you travel? I often ask get asked this question by friends. After several years of traveling together, my husband Glen and I have a way of planning our trips based on our travel personality and style. It’s an ever-evolving system, but we have […]